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Air Force, DLA lead way in suspensions, debarments

On DoD

This edition of On DoD is part of our week-long multimedia special report on federal acquisition, Inside the World's Biggest Buyer.

One of the five areas we're focusing on is suspension and debarment: the process by which a contractor can be declared ineligible for new government work because of either actual or alleged misconduct.

And It's a hot topic at the moment. There's been interest in the issue by Congress, the Commission on Wartime Contracting, and the executive branch. Lawmakers are pushing to automatically debar contractors under certain circumstances. And the Office of Management and Budget recently issued a memo saying that too many agencies weren't using the suspension and debarment tools they have at their disposal, and telling agencies to review their programs.

In this week's edition of On DoD, we hear from two of the agencies that are using suspension and debarment aggressively. The Air Force and the Defense Logistics Agency together processed more than 800 suspensions, debarments, and proposed debarments last year. We hear from Steven Shaw, the Air Force's deputy general counsel for contractor responsibility, and Normand Lussier, DLA's associate general counsel for contracting integrity.